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Detaching the ties of ownership: the effects of hand washing on the exchange of endowed products
Author(s) -
Florack Arnd,
Kleber Janet,
Busch Romy,
Stöhr David
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1016/j.jcps.2013.09.010
Subject(s) - product (mathematics) , perception , endowment effect , psychology , endowment , embodied cognition , cognition , action (physics) , reset (finance) , hand washing , social psychology , business , computer science , mathematics , law , physics , geometry , finance , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , political science , medicine , pathology , hygiene
Recent studies have demonstrated that the ownership of a product leads to a biased perception of its aspects. Based on research on embodied cognition, we argue that the physical action of hand washing can reset the cognitive system to a more neutral state by reducing the asymmetrical perception of owned and not owned products. In three studies, we examined the effects of hand washing on the endowment effect by asking owners of a product to exchange it for a similar one. As expected, in Experiment 1, we showed that hand washing doubled the percentage of participants who exchanged an owned product for an alternative product. In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding and showed that only the action of hand washing and not a prime of physical cleaning elicited this effect. In Experiment 3, we again replicated the hand washing effect on exchange rates and examined the effect of hand washing on product evaluations. The results of all experiments suggest that hand washing reduces decision preferences that are biased by ownership.